A video
on religious freedom and traditional values released a few months ago
as part of an effort to highlight anti-Christian initiatives by the Obama
Administration has now gone viral, generating over 2.1 million views on
YouTube. The filmmaker, Jeremy Wiles, tells Accuracy in Media that the
idea for the video came from a dream and that he now sees “God’s
fingerprints” all over the project.

The
3-minute “Test
of Fire” video says voting for the sanctity of life, traditional
marriage, and religious freedom are of grave importance and poses the
question, “Will you vote the values that will stand the test of
fire?” It shows a blacksmith pounding out words signifying various
election issues but putting, “life,” “marriage,”
and “freedom” in the forefront and then being placed on an
American flag.

The
official description of the video, which includes dramatic music and a
woman entering a voting booth and marking a ballot, says, “Some
things are more important than high gas prices or a faltering economy.
They are life, marriage and freedom. Will you vote the values that will
stand the test of fire?”

“Your
vote will affect the future and be recorded in eternity,” it says.

Wiles
told AIM that he was struggling with the idea of a script when he remembered
the words “life,” “marriage,” and “freedom,”
from a dream he had just had. He integrated those into the video, “Test
of Fire: Election 2012,” which was originally posted on the
website of a small Catholic group in Florida and then picked up by commentators
for Fox News, Glenn Beck, Catholic television networks, and others.

The
success of the video demonstrates the power of new media in this election
year and the ability of citizen activists to overcome liberal media bias.

The
video, with 2.1 million views, is directed at Catholics, while another
version appeals to Protestants.

Catholics
are a crucial voting bloc. In 2008, 54 percent of Catholics voted for
Obama. This year, however, many Catholics are opposing and resisting Obama’s
attempts to dictate church policy, especially in regard to a Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate under the Obamacare program
that employers, including religious institutions, provide birth control
and abortion-related services.

The
video includes the quote, “When the government tampers with a freedom
so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies
ahead,” by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. It is from an op-ed
on religious freedom.

Wiles
runs Creative Lab,
a West Palm Beach, Florida, film production studio. He said that he was
contacted by Adriana Gonzalez of Catholics
Called to Witness to do a video on threats to religious freedom and
Catholic moral teachings. Catholics Called to Witness is a faith-based
organization dedicated to upholding and promoting religious liberty, “our
first, most cherished liberty” and three “non-negotiable principles:”

•
“Protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of
conception until natural death.• “Recognition and promotion of the natural
structure of the family—as a union between one man and one woman
based on marriage—and its defense from attempts to make it juridical
equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm
it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character
and its irreplaceable social role.• “The protection of the right of parents
to educate their children.

Gonzalez
also serves as the ParentalRights.org
Florida State Coordinator and with her husband Manuel homeschooled their
seven children, two of whom are now in college. ParentalRights.org is
headed by noted conservative Christian activist and constitutional attorney
Michael
P. Farris.

She
contacted Wiles about doing a special election year video. Her website
explains,
“The thought of making a video came to us as a sudden inspiration
from a friend. Though we had little knowledge of the video-making process,
the idea made sense, and so we contacted our videographer friends at Creative
Lab. We wanted a video that would powerfully communicate the non-negotiable
issues of life, marriage, and religious liberty.”

Wiles
said he had a mental block until deadline day, when he woke up with images
from a dream of a blacksmith and the words “life,” “marriage,”
and “freedom” in fire. The rest of the story is equally astonishing.
He said a friend of a friend found a blacksmith shop and it was filmed
in one day and edited in a short 3 hours.

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“We
honestly did not anticipate anything,” says the Catholics Called
to Witness website. “It was simply inexperience that kept us from
forming expectations. But beginning on Easter Sunday, we watched as the
number of hits went up by the thousands and then the tens of thousands
every day. The media caught on and aired it both locally and nationally.
We heard stories of people repeatedly receiving the video, emailed to
them from family and friends. The video was popping up on more websites
than we could keep up with. Fox TV aired or talked about ‘Test of
Fire’ five times, including a live interview on the Lou Dobbs Show.
Glenn Beck posted it on The Blaze and talked about it on his radio show.
And EWTN and Catholic TV continue to share it with their viewers.”

EWTN,
a global Catholic television network, recently interviewed
Adriana Gonzalez and her husband Manuel about their organization and how
the “Test of Fire” video came about. They were also interviewed
by the CatholicTV
Network, an online service seeking carriage on cable and satellite
services. “It was truly a work of God,” she said of the video.
“We put it on YouTube and we sent it off with a prayer.”

The
official description of the video, which includes dramatic music and a
woman entering a voting booth and marking a ballot, says, “Some
things are more important than high gas prices or a faltering economy.
They are life, marriage and freedom. Will you vote the values that will
stand the test of fire?”